Valuing America's working families: A Blog Carnival on Powering the Engine of America's Economic Growth

Our country's greatness was built on valuing America's working families. At MomsRising and Progressive States Network, we believe that in America, more families should be joining a thriving middle class than falling out of it -- powering the engine of America's economic growth and national prosperity in the process.

But our workplace standards are woefully out of date, and women and their families bear the brunt of it. Women's wages in the U.S. are stuck at 77 cents to a man's dollar for full-time year round work, with mothers and women of color experiencing a gap that's larger still. The U.S. lags behind more than 150 other nations on paid family leave and earned sick days policies, both of which are critical to the economic security of women and their families, as well as critical to the health of our national economy. And when it comes to minimum wage, women and mothers take the hardest hits there too: Women represent nearly two-thirds of minimum wage workers in industries such as waitstaff, retail, childcare workers, and home health care aides. And, nearly four in ten women minimum wage workers are women of color. And the federal minimum wage is currently stuck at only $7.25/hour. If a worker is allowed to work full time, that still only comes out to $15,080 per year--leaving a family of four well under the federal poverty line. That's not the American dream.

*Please take a moment to read the voices of state leaders, from across the country below, sharing what they are doing to build stronger states for all of us:

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